Life Time Fitness transforms Financial Management with ServiceNow

Challenge

Headquartered in Chanhassen, Minnesota, the corporate Finance group at Life Time was faced with a growing list of business services to support accounting, payroll, HR operations, finance, and reporting requests. Receiving between 7500 – 10000 emails per month distributed across 30 different emails was resulting in backlogs of responses and forcing high paid accountants to spend a disproportionate amount of time on transactional tasks leaving less time for value add activities. Requests for services were misguided, requiring rerouting to the proper area. Repeat emails going to multiple email categories ensued due to lack of acknowledgment costing time and optimal resource utilization.

The current state was completely reactive and inadequate. Data visibility limitations didn’t give a sense of where the need for support is coming from, what the topics are, and whether training was required. With the existing support model obviously fragmented, staffing levels unable to scale, and support response times lagging further behind, it was recognized that a change for the better was a necessity.

Operational Process and Technology analysis

Consequently, a decision was made to formulate a new Business Services team. This team evaluated changes in business process and technology to contribute in the enablement of an intuitive web-based platform that contains a centralized repository of easy to access training that includes instructional documents, videos, and FAQs. The goal is to empower team members (club and corporate) to learn independently while reducing the number of tickets being serviced by the Business Service Specialist.

A decision to assess the service capabilities within the Finance module of the ServiceNow platform was a no-brainer. Technology teams were already using ServiceNow for ITSM. A logical assumption of achieving similar workflow automation advances and operational efficiencies by creating a self-service layer while simplifying the business model for service delivery needed to be proven out.

Solution

Right Platform & Right Partner

It was quickly realized that ServiceNow had the right functionality to empower an easy self-service channel for users. Engaging IntegRhythm (Gold ServiceNow implementation partner) to consult in guiding the team through requirement gathering sessions was made to drive exceptional service across a broad range of business services. IntegRhythm initiated highly interactive workshops and provided assess to the Financial module to the team right away. Collaboration quickly developed, flushing out ways the system fits with the business process. Elsa Donnelly, Sr. Manager of Business Services, “the workshops with IntegRhythm were 100% critical in getting real-time feedback. Our process owners and SME’s all got in the same room together with IntegRhythm leadership to iteratively iron out core requirements that configured with ServiceNow.”

The partnership with IntegRhythm extended beyond standard “out of the box” functionality to cover a huge issue within Life Time Fitness. At the end of each month, a flurry of P&L related requests would hit the accounting department. In order to handle the work load and time pinch required to reconcile financials, it forced accountants to manually answer approximately 1500 emails over the course a 24-hour time frame. Simplifying the process, IntegRhythm assisted by creating a “Re-Case” form within the ServiceNow platform to ease the stress. Elsa Donnelly recalled,

“It took a few iterations but now there is one spot to go.No more back and forth with emails and phone calls. By capturing the data requirements in the “Re-Case” form, we’ve eliminated requirements gathering …streamlining the process.”